A fiber optics network is often used for communication of data. In a fiber optics network, data is transmitted from one node to another node as light pulses along a glass and/or plastic fiber. To lower the probability of communications failure in a fiber optics network, certain protection mechanisms may be built into the network to provide communications redundancy. One example of a protection mechanism is bi-directional line switched ring (“BLSR”), which is a configuration where a closed loop or a “ring” is formed by a plurality of nodes connected to each other through optical fiber. By using the closed-loop configuration, the BLSR architecture provides an alternate route for a data frame to reach its destination in case of a line failure. For example, if there is a break in a span of optical fiber leading to a destination in one direction of the ring, data may be sent in the opposite direction of the ring to reach the same destination.
The protocol associated with BLSR may require the nodes in the ring to operate at a same data transmission rate for proper operation of the network. This requirement increases communications service down time during a network upgrade because all nodes may be required to be upgraded to operate at an upgraded transmission rate before service may resume. For example, while an OC-48 fiber optics network is being upgraded to an OC-192 network, the network may be unable to provide service until all of the nodes in the network are upgraded to operate at a data transmission rate that is associated with OC-192.